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On April 4, 2019, I was about 3 days late with one of my best April Fool’s pranks.  I made a post on Facebook that said, “Asking for your prayers today as I go to the doctor later to be checked for windmill noise cancer. TIA.” Donald Trump had been in the news earlier that week making false claims that noise from windmills cause cancer.  Obviously, this is BS.  So, my request for prayers was intended as a joke, making fun of a stupid statement from a dumb politician whose dumbness is so dumb, the likes of which we have never seen.  This post received comments from 31 people. It also received 18 thumbs up, 10 laughs, 5 hearts and 2 shocked faces. About 9 of the people that commented got that it was a joke.  The rest of the people were seriously concerned. I’m convinced that most of them didn’t read the post that close.  When they saw the words doctor and cancer, they were ready to share their sympathy.  I really appreciate their intentions and concern for me.  Some probably hadn’t even heard the news about Trump’s dumb statement and assumed that it was a real thing.  Most of the responses in the comments were statements like “Praying” or “Prayers”.  A couple of people that I knew got the joke offered “thoughts and prayers” in the style of the empty concerns express by politicians reluctant to do anything else relating to mass shootings. One of my friends had a long prayer for me asking for complete healing of my body.  My response was to say nothing and let this play out.  I was enjoying watching the reactions.  

Several years ago, during a meeting at church, I had to go to the restroom.  As usual, I planned to wash my hands before I returned to the meeting.  A bottle of green apple scented hand soap was sitting next to the sink in the restroom. When I pressed the pump of the dispenser, a glob of soap shot past the open palm of my hand, hitting the front of my khaki pants, next to the bottom part of the zipper.  This is an embarrassing place to have a wet spot on your pants.  Because it was soap, it wasn’t going to fade was it dried like it would have if I had just splashed water on my pants.  Soap also has a thicker consistency.  This suggested that I had done something in my pants other than just wetting myself. Additionally, this soap had a strong, Jolly Rancher type green apple scent.  Attempting to return to the meeting as quickly as possible, I untucked my shirt trying to cover the spot on my pants. I couldn’t do anything about the smell.  I also sat at the back of the meeting room to draw less attention.  I was sitting next to a good friend.  I told him I had an accident.  I lifted my shirt to show him the spot.  He restrained a laugh.  I explained what happened.  Then I told him I felt like a green apple pervert.

I know I’m not the only person in the world that has their names mispronounced.  When I’m introducing myself, there have been countless times people have replied, “Nice to meet you, Mark!” or “Nice to meet you, Mr. Weaver!” Sometimes it both.  Years ago, I received a call at work from a salesman. When I answered my phone, he asked, “How are you today Mr. Weiner?” I thought to myself, “A lot better than you are! I don’t care what you are selling!”

I am a fan of Laurel and Hardy movies.  One of their more popular films is called Sons of the Desert.  In this film, they are members of a fraternal lodge called the Sons of the Desert.  Part of their uniform is Fez with the name of the organization on the front.  The official Laurel and Hardy fan club is named after this film.  A few years ago, I was wondering if I might be able to purchase a Sons of the Desert fez.  I discovered a company called Fez-O-Rama that makes them, but they don’t keep them in stock all the time.  They have made limited runs of them in the past but were never available when I had checked.  In mid-January of 2024 (this month as I write this), I was watching the movie Casablanca. When I saw Sidney Greenstreet’s character wearing a fez, it made me want to check to see if Fez-O-Rama had made anymore.  I just happened to check it during the one week out of the year that they took orders for this fez. They limit their orders to a run of 50.  On January 15, I got my wife to measure my head and I placed my order for a Sons of the Desert fez.